Whatever, money, rent, meh.

Owning? You might make some equity but you are not saving money. The new stove you want? The strange sounds you want to chase down? Those cost not insignificant monies. There are places that renting saves you just by never changing by much. I know that you make equity and everything else by owning but you are also responsible for every little twitch the building makes. So, in renting, you are also containing costs. Your rent paid isn't pure profit. It's the mortgage and repairs and everything that randomly, or regularly comes up.

Owning? You might make some equity but you are not saving money. The new stove you want? The strange sounds you want to chase down? Those cost not insignificant monies.

Yes. Oh my god, yes. There are times when I really wish that Pete and I had understood that a bit better before we had decided to buy a house.

Yeah, I was just having the same thought. Why would I want to buy a condo and have to fix every little thing myself?

I love having my own house. I was always afraid I would hate having to take care of everything, but I don't. If I had bought an older place that needed a lot of fixing up, I'm sure I'd feel differently about it, but this place is only 11 years old and well-maintained, so it's not likely to break my wallet anytime soon.

In retrospect, I'm really glad I didn't glad buy a condo in New Jersey when I had a chance to. I wouldn't have been as happy with basically owning an apartment.

I'm too lazy (and drifty with martinis) to Google it up, but I'm pretty sure that some economist did an in-depth analysis a short while back that suggested that the Bay Area is one of the few weird spots in the US where renting makes much better financial sense than owning.

Dinner tonight: martini, ibuprofen, dark green salad loaded with dense lush tomatoes and kalamata olives, and for dessert a waffle with Captain Kirk's face, slathered in butter.

Jilli, OMG those pictures are gorgeous. Pure fun slathered in gorgeous. Can't wait to see the rest of them.

The Star Trek waffles are so much cooler than the Star Trek pasties (eta: [link] ) I saw earlier today.

ION, space shuttle Discovery is launching soon....

link is more or less worksafe....

Dinner tonight: martini, ibuprofen

I aspire to be you. Mine was ibuprofen and wine. I can improve just a little, I think.

I don't want to be awake. I was having a really nice dream in which I was headed to London and buying myself a kindle.

I love having my own house. I was always afraid I would hate having to take care of everything, but I don't.

Yes. This. That said, I've found that with a house vs. an apartment, you can end up putting not just a lot more money into the place, but a lot more time. I can easily spend a third to half of my weekend doing basic upkeep chores around the place. I love it, and get a lot of satisfaction from it, but still...

I don't want to own a house as much as I want to own property around a house. I love gardening much more than house upkeep. Right now my dislike for house upkeep (and my kind landlords who let me play with a patch of dirt next to my building) is winning out over my wish to garden more.